Friday Morning Open Thread

Open Thread. All topics welcome. But I will add a few words about today's World Cup matches.

While both Brazil and Portugal are virtually assured of going through to the Round of 16 (Brazil IS assured), this morning's game between them has significance nonetheless- it determines who will play Spain (if Spain gets through) in the Round of 16.

Interestingly, if you wanted to avoid Spain (Chile is a very good team), you would not know whether to play to win or draw. Spain does not face Chile until this afternoon.

If Spain falters, avoiding Chile to instead play Switzerland would be a big plus. In any event, Brazil and Portugal should be incapable of playing an uninteresting game. A must see. In the afternoon, Spain again plays for its World Cup life against a very good Chile team. (Group H turned into the real Group of Death.) Switzerland can, indeed, should, beat Honduras. If it does, Spain MUST beat Chile to advance. In effect, Spain must win the Group or go home. I like Brazil, Ivory Coast, Spain and Switzerland in today's matches.

Hilarious. Torture Yoo is quoting Bork in order to point out that Kagan will be an activist judge because she will listen favorably to human right abuse cases, and be against things like using lethal force against terrorist suspects, and their ensuing torture in the case they were not killed.

It starts with a quote from Kagan:

[Bork] is making hey over the fact that as Harvard Law School dean Kagan once introduced former Israeli Chief Justice Aharon Barak as "my judicial hero." (She proceeded to say he "is the judge who has best advanced democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and justice.")

And Yoo takes it out of the park:

Yoo complains, "Barak is the poster child for judicial activism. Barak has brazenly pushed the power of the Court to the point where it reviews the use of lethal force to target terrorist leaders, hears cases brought by human rights groups against the Israeli intelligence agencies and their detention and interrogation policies, and even directs the Israeli government where the wall along the Palestinian territory should run."

reasonably credible news source to weigh in on reports of rainy oil in various parts of Louisiana, Texas, and Florida. Well, TruthOut just linked to this story: It's Raining Oil In Louisiana?:

A smattering of reports from along the coast indicate similar occurrences accompanied by a strong odor of oil...According to a 2003 study, [and the MMS, and numerous other sources]:

Most oil spill behavior models include evaporation...Within a few days following a spill [this spill is ongoing], light crude oils can lose up to 75 percent of their initial volume; medium crudes up to 40 percent; and heavy or residual oils lose no more than 10 percent of their volume...

And then there is the question of whether a million plus gallons of Corexit will also cause contaminated rain:

Dispersants break up the natural surface tension in oil, sending small droplets into the water column and reducing the surface area which may evaporate, however it also changes the chemistry of the oil which remains on the surface.

Gawd help us -- it's starting to look like the Seven Plagues of Revelation.

I understand his point about all phones having better or worse signal reception depending on position, but this seems a little extreme. I've not had one dropped call with my iPhone 3GS. This article sounds like I would have them regularly with the way I hold the phone. Maybe it is not really that bad. I'll experiment with my friend's phone when he gets it.

I WON'T buy a case or 'bumper' I would not need except for that, that's for sure. In fact the fact that they have these bumbers all ready to go tells me a lot.

They want you to buy a $29 bumper (plus tax, of course) because you're left-handed? How ridiculous! Somewhere between 10 and 15% of the population is left-handed (depending upon which study you look at).

They "can't recreate" the problem, but they have a (supposed) fix for it that will cost you more? Must be nice to be a big corporation who can make stuff that doesn't work the way it's supposed to in certain reasonably foreseeable conditions, and then charge you more for a fix.

Howard Engel is an accomplished Canadian novelist. One day, he had a stroke and lost the ability to read -- that is, his brain could no longer process text as a fixed reference. But Engel found that he could still write, even though, shortly after writing a piece of text, he was unable to read it. So Engel devised a way to use this remaining ability to regain his literacy. Cartoonist and animator Levni Yilmaz produced this video for National Public Radio explaining how Engel was able to do it.

Missed iPhone frenzy at the local malls too...but here are some of the statistics on sales I was hoping to find. 77% of sales are upgrades from other iPhones. Still thinking about what that means, other than boatloads of happy customers.

Brazil's independence story is kind of interesting, as the Portuguese royalty fled to Brazil when Napoleon was doing his thing, and when the King returned to Europe, left his son/prince behind to manage the colony. Instead, Prince decided to be king of Brazil and declared independence.

Back to the match, the referee is handing out yellow cards like candy -- for arguing, for flopping, for hard fouls. I wonder if both teams will be crippled in the next round.

BRUSSELS - European nations do not have to allow same-sex marriage, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled, though gay rights groups claimed a partial victory Friday because the court acknowledged growing agreement that their relationships should be recognized in law.

Seven judges at the European court ruled unanimously that two Austrian men denied permission to wed were not covered by the guarantee of the right to marry enshrined in Europe's human rights convention.

The judges acknowledged "an emerging European consensus" that same-sex couples should have legal recognition but said individual states may still decide what form it should take because marriage had "deep-rooted social and cultural connotations which may differ largely from one society to another."

The European Union's 27 member states range from socially liberal countries like Sweden and the Netherlands to religious, conservative nations such as Poland.

But:

Despite Thursday's ruling, there was little to cheer opponents of gay marriage. The judges noted that the European rights charter was drawn up in 1950, when "marriage was clearly understood in the traditional sense of being a union between partners of different sex." They said that was lo longer automatically the case.

"The Court would no longer consider that the right to marry ... must in all circumstances be limited to marriage between two persons of the opposite sex," the judges said.

Legal experts said the European Court ruling would not have a significant impact.

"It just means that questions of marriage are within the margin of discretion of particular states," said British human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson. "Each state is entitled to have its own marriage law. I don't think it will have many implications here or elsewhere."

MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee County Board spent part of the day debating a measure that would call for the county to boycott doing business with companies in Arizona.

Communities around the nation have passed similar measures in response to a law in Arizona that makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally.

There was an odd moment during the debate when Supervisor Peggy West stood up and seemed to be confused about her geography. "If this was Texas, which is a state that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this saying that they had a major issue with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would have to look twice at this. But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border," West said during debate.

Her colleague, Joe Rice, quickly corrected her, "I just want to assure my colleague that Arizona does in fact share a border with the country of Mexico."

Because if you are trying to generalize about an entire group by using one person who obviously needs to bone up on her geography, I could easily provide you with a host of conservative quotes, many from this blog, which show that ignorance is equally distributed amongst the various political persuasions.

You were the one giving fodder, no one else.... well, no one else, save for your wingnut sources..

And to discredit, and make a laughing stock of someone because they were confused about geography, is a low blow. Something to be discredited in itself, but of course you could not help but jump on the conservative pile on.

And of course, for good measure, I suppose, you decided to leave out her defense:

While speaking at the meeting, West did go on to talk about National Guard troops on the border in Arizona. West points to that as she tells us that she simply misspoke.

Yeah, you could get a job at Faux.. between your comments and editing, a real candidate for funneling news from wingnuttia.

And from Peggy West's bio:

Peggy West was elected 12th District Supervisor in 2004 and, after being reelected in 2008, is serving her second term representing 50,000 residents on Milwaukee's south side. She currently serves as 2nd Vice-Chair on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Supervisor West also has the unique distinction of being the first Latino/Hispanic American to be elected to the Milwaukee County Board.

And of course you left this part out:

Milwaukee County would boycott doing business with firms in Arizona to protest that state's tough immigration law, under a measure endorsed Thursday by a County Board panel.

The county would avoid new contracts with Arizona firms or the state of Arizona and possibly discontinue any current contracts with firms in that state, under a resolution unanimously approved by the board's finance committee. It also would bar county employees from travel to conferences in Arizona.

The aim would be to punish the state for the immigration law Arizona enacted last month that makes it a crime for immigrants to fail to carry immigration documents and gives police broad power to detain a suspected illegal immigrant.

Supervisors Peggy West and Elizabeth M.Coggs called the Arizona law racist.

Great analogy, Obama clearly misspoke during his campaign and people made fun of him, or cringed because he made a mistake.

BTW-what was Obama's comeback?

"I hope I said 100,000 people the first time instead of 100 million. I understand I said there were 57 states today. It's a sign that my numeracy is getting a little, uh."

But you seek out some "liberal" hispanic supervisor of a US city to make fun of, as if you were channeling Rush Limbaugh.

And in typical Faux news style, you left out her defense, unlike TL in the Obama misspeak thread, and you failed to point out that this was a debate meant to flesh out the pros and cons of a boycott. And of course you left off the main point that Ms West voted for the boycott and declared that the Arizona law was racist.

Good work, one has to question who you are working for though.... Certainly not the liberals, imo

And I wouldn't put ignorance of the precise geography of the Southwest on the same level as the ongoing promotion of completely unregulated markets, Rapture in the Holy Land and the insistence on the protection of pedophiles in robes..

Knew that you would support our conservative friend jbindc, and of course she did not misspeak during the debate about a boycott of Arizona, particularly when she spoke of National Guard troops on the Arizona-Mexico border. And of course when the vote came down, about boycotting Arizona, she did not misspeak either, she voted for the boycott and said that the Arizona law is racist.

PALIN: First off, we're going to continue good relations with Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain's running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep...

GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.

PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there.GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

I guess for Palin "insight" is equivalent to "sight" so, even though she personally has never seen Russia from her state, the fact that someone somewhere can see some remote part of Russia from Alaska makes her particularly qualified to be Veep.

completely scientific, but it does look like due to the panels and dimples on the ball, that the way it makes its way through the air....it can change its trajectory. Something about the way it can switch from smooth to turbulent air flow around the ball. So understand this, if the U.S. wins the World Cup.....we were only lucky :)

The usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808 precipitated the drive by the colony for independence from Spain. A national junta in the name of Ferdinand - heir to the deposed king - was formed on September 18, 1810. The Government Junta of Chile proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence soon won a wide following. Spanish attempts to re-impose arbitrary rule during what was called the Reconquista led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army with Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile's most renowned patriot, and led by José de San Martín, hero of the Argentine War of Independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership. The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics and the Roman Catholic Church. A strong presidency eventually emerged, but wealthy landowners remained powerful.[8]

The history of colonial struggle, however, sheds little insight on the Chilean goalie's boneheaded play.

in her sickbed. The police said she took an aggressive posture towards them. The reason the police were there? Because the grandson was concerned about her health and wanted some medical assistance....

Goals and fields are too large for it to make a difference. In addition, you are only allowed three substitutions, which play has to stop for the player to come on. Its very different from hockey. Only answer is to push as many of your defenders past midfield. Midfield is key here because a player from the other team is not offsides if they on the midfiled line, even if there is not a defender between the opposing player and the keeper. If a coach were to ever do such a thing, they would be sacked before the game was over.

I just saw the new ESPN commercial about the number 10 :) Landon was shown twice because he had of course two amazing goals, Forlan shown only once....not very amazing either :) How many American Landons will be born in the next four years? It's a fresh untouched name in America. It's so fertile.

My daughter was furious with me because he called and asked me if I thought it was okay, if it would upset me, and I said it was a cute name for a little girl. My daughter screamed at me, "He's trying to name her after a basketball player!" So?

Even more about McChrystal: now it can be told. The story about him voting for Obama is not contrived. He is a political liberal. He is a social liberal. He banned Fox News from the television sets in his headquarters. Yes, really. This puts to rest another false rumor: that McChrystal deliberately precipitated his firing because he wants to run for President.

He'll be home tomorrow night. He is playing Red Faction though I guess getting brushed up for the new one, and he wanted me to know that he had just killed a whole private security firm for me and also several corporate CEOs. What sort of games are you putting out there Captain?

Then I was talking to my husband saying good bye and he said that Joshua was now destroying monuments. I said that wasn't cool and my husband told him that his mom didn't think it was cool. I heard Josh holler back to me that they were corporate monuments. So I said that I guessed that was okay but my husband lied. He tells Joshua that I insist that he stop because corporations are people too :)